In a world where extensive content is available on the internet, using viral visuals can help small businesses generate more engagement.
Visual content can engage people better than text and has always been the preferred choice for people. Consider this — people are 2x more likely to share videos on social media as compared to other content formats.
And if you can make your visual content go viral, you can get even more out of it.
What Are Viral Visuals?
Viral visuals include images, photographs, GIFs, long and short-form videos, and infographics, which are popular among people on social media and other networks.
These are essentially graphics that have managed to catch the fancy of a majority of social media users. In essence, they have a high reach and engagement rate. These are usually based on recent events such as the infamous slap at the Oscars 2022.
Businesses can repurpose these viral visuals to gain more customer engagement.
Benefits of Viral Visuals for Small Businesses
Viral visuals such as memes are bliss for small business online marketing strategies. They are beneficial in many ways, and the following are the main reasons why small businesses should adopt viral visuals in their marketing strategies.
1. Viral visuals don’t cost much to repurpose.
Content creators put a lot of thought into creating social media posts and other content. They need to think about how the post will grab their audience’s attention, will it have the desired engagement, etc.
On the other hand, viral graphics have already proved to be loved by the majority of the audiences. The only thing the small business marketers will have to do is customize the viral visuals as per their brand.
2. They gain more engagement.
As viral visuals are mostly related to current trends or recent gossip, people can quickly relate to them.
They’re also light-hearted and thus serve the purpose of driving engagement as they’re shared and viewed by numerous millennials and GenZ users.
Hence, if you are unsure whether or not your visuals will be loved by your audience, all you have to do is try to make them relevant to some recent viral event and this could boost their shares and reach.
3. Viral visuals show the human side of your company.
When your business shares viral visuals like memes, it shows its human side. This is something that business-related posts may not necessarily help you achieve as much.
This side of your business helps your audience find more common characteristics between you and them, which ultimately helps them connect with your brand.
And that’s what you always wanted. Isn’t it?
But how can you use these graphics to your advantage?
How to Use Viral Visuals to Boost Social Media Effectiveness for Your Small Business
If you’re a regular social media user, it’s likely you’ve already seen brands using viral visuals to gain more engagement on their social posts.
There are several things you need to keep in mind while creating or repurposing viral visuals for your social media strategy.
1. Know your audience.
Similar to any other social media marketing strategy, the first step toward creating or repurposing viral visuals is to get to know the target audience.
You need to understand what kind of viral content your target audiences like and are more likely to share with others.
For example, suppose your target audience is among millennials or Gen Z. In that case, You can use viral graphics that are associated with their interest, like trending Netflix series or a new movie.
For example, note how Netflix does the same.
Image via Twitter
2. Stay updated with what’s trending.
One of the disadvantages of viral content is that it doesn’t have a long life. This is why you need to stay in tune with what’s trending on the internet or, particularly, on social media.
If you can manage to post a trending visual before most of the other people on the internet, your post is more likely to go viral due to the trend.
But the real question is, how do you stay in tune with trending viral content?
There are several tools and websites such as Semrush and 9GAG where you can find what’s trending on social media. Using them, you can easily find new social trends.
Image via 9GAG
3. Personalize the viral visuals.
Of course, you want to generate higher engagement by posting viral content on your social media accounts such as Instagram. But don’t forget that you need to personalize these viral visuals as per your product or service categories or the market niche.
It’s not just you who is using those viral visuals; many other brands, influencers, and individuals will also be sharing the same viral visual. Therefore, you need to stand out in this sea of visuals.
Try to think of creative ways to associate that specific viral visual with your brand slogan, name, product, or even market category. Take a look at how Ruffles repurposed a trending meme for their social media handle:
Image via Twitter
But how do you customize these visuals?
You can use photo and video editing tools to repurpose these viral visuals. There are several tools that offer a free version, which would be enough for repurposing the content.
4. Share them via email newsletters.
Email marketing doesn’t always have to be boring. Casual communication is an important part of marketing communication, especially if your audience prefers it.
Therefore, it’s recommended to share viral visuals like GIFs or memes via emails. For instance, note how the below email is packed with graphics.
Image via Gmail
And the best part about email marketing is that it’s easy to get started. If you don’t have a dedicated email designer in-house, you can use a free email template builder to get started.
It’s Time to Go Viral
Viral visuals can play a major role in helping you create a brand that your audience can relate to. It also helps you boost awareness and engagement.
But here’s a word of caution — by getting more engagement through viral graphics, it’s easy for small businesses to forget that they are a company selling products or services, not a meme page.
So, make sure you use a mix of valuable content and viral visuals to grow your brand online.
